Anyone compete with their dogs? (or are involved in any dog activities)?

[SlitherinSisters]

In my experience, the grooming needed for an Irish is pretty time consuming. I've shown a few, they can be real airheads sometimes! Out of the setters, I prefer the English, but none of the setters are well endowed in the brains department. Sweeter than anything though. I would not choose any of the setter breeds for competitive obedience.

Corgis are great dogs, but they need fair and consistent handling to be good obedience dogs. They are wonderful show dogs, talented obedience dogs and hilarious little agility dogs. But there are more bad breeders than good ones in the corgi breed, and care must be taken to get a good one. My corgi is not a show dog by far, but the corgi coming home in 2010 is from a very strong show and performance pedigree. I'm so excited!

Awww I thought the Irish Setter was pretty awesome. Although, I've only met a couple and they weren't show dogs, just at home dogs that were super smart. I wasn't around to see how long it took the owners to train them though! I just assumed that they were pretty smart because both dogs I met knew more tricks than I could think of! I didn't even think about the grooming part.....

Yeah, we have A LOT of corgi breeders around here, they are pretty much farm dogs, and Amish bred dogs so I don't know how much I would trust them. I've seen quite a few corgis in little agility competitions around here and they were pretty darn quick and seemed to listen very well! A friend of ours was one of the "farmer" corgi breeders. They were awesome little sheep herding dogs! And you're right about their personalities! The cutest little things ever!

Do you have a Pembroke or a Cardigan? Congrats on the new one, do you have pictures or is it "still in the making"?

[sekaiNdobes]

Awww I thought the Irish Setter was pretty awesome. Although, I've only met a couple and they weren't show dogs, just at home dogs that were super smart. I wasn't around to see how long it took the owners to train them though! I just assumed that they were pretty smart because both dogs I met knew more tricks than I could think of! I didn't even think about the grooming part.....

Tricks and competitive obedience are apples and oranges. Competitive obedience is highly controlled finesse work, where the devil is in the details. Tricks are just that - tricks. There are quite a few "trick dogs" that would have real difficulty with competitive obedience... my first Doberman being one of them. She was an amazing trick dog, but we couldn't master traditional obedience at the level I wanted.

Now Ronin should make it to Utility if I can get my head out of my butt and improve my handling skills. Some dogs just aren't cut out for Utility, but the people I train with (people with multiple OTCHs) insist that he is the type of dog that could - and should - make it to Utility.

Do you have a Pembroke or a Cardigan? Congrats on the new one, do you have pictures or is it "still in the making"?

I currently have a Pembroke from a working breeder. Her temperament leaves a lot to be desired, she'll never see the inside of an obedience ring, and certainly not a show ring! Corgi #2 is hopefully on the way, his dam came into season about a week ago. Both parents are champions, the breeding is a very strong conformation and performance pedigree. Fingers crossed that the breeding takes and my first raised-from-a-puppy obedience dog will be coming home in February or March!

Here's my totally pet quality Pembroke girl:

[SlitherinSisters]

AWWWWW it's so cute!!!

[Calift]

Its so nice to talk to people about dog breeds!! lol....none of my friends really care much about dogs, nice to find people I can relate to.

I definitely understand the major commitment, dogs are a huge part of my life. I'm one of those people that keeps the "The Ultimate Dictionary of Dog Breeds" by my bed...my version of bible . So the agility/conformation is not just a passing thought, I actually want a dog I do it all with (or try at the very least). I really am taking all the advice, and I don't want to get over my head.

There aren't any ugly Aussies, and some of the red merles are just gorgeous. I find overall the breed has so much variety, they can look a bit motley though....but a show-quality Aussie is certainly pretty!

I like Shiloh Shepherds too....they are basically everything perfect with German Shepherds, without the bad conformation. Great dogs, but I just don't get the sloped-back thing. I think I'll look into some other Belgian Shepherd breeds, though I don't know how good the breeders are over here.

Beautiful Corgi BTW! They really seem like a charming breed, and all the Pembrokes I've met have been very sweet!

[sekaiNdobes]

If you're interested in the Belgian breeds and aren't afraid of a little dog hair, I highly recommend Tervurens. They are wonderful agility and obedience dogs, and aren't as polital in the conformation ring as many other breeds with the same performance potential. They're a blast to work, they're one breed that I can't help but enjoy. And lucky for you, there are some VERY good terv breeders here in the States.

Many of the highly titled dogs in our club are tervs. I'd have one if it wasn't for all that darn HAIR!

[sekaiNdobes]

Quick post off-topic... here are the parents of my next corgi:

sire:


dam: (PS - these are her puppy pictures, she looks MUCH different now. She's drop dead gorgeous as a mature adult!)


This is the breeder where most of the corgis at the obedience club are from - she's known to produce VERY nice performance dogs.

[nixer]

i compete with my dog all the time.
its too bad she always wins.
i guess she will always be better fed and loved

[Calift]

Tervurens were the breed I was thinking of for the belgian shepherds....just looked them up yesterday and they seem awesome in every way! They have that pointy face of a sighthound I love, the puffiness of a Chow, and the intelligence of a herding breed . They kind of remind me of a rough collie, which used to be my childhood dream dog!

Anyway, there are more breeders than I thought! There are a couple of them near my parent's home, so next time I'm there I'll think I'll poke around.


Those corgis are beautiful....Is it strange to walk a corgi and a doberman at the same time? They have such different profiles...but each are attractive in their own way.

[sekaiNdobes]

Those corgis are beautiful....Is it strange to walk a corgi and a doberman at the same time? They have such different profiles...but each are attractive in their own way.

Nope, not too strange. We have corgis because they're big dogs with hacked-off legs... they can handle just about anything the dobes throw at them. When we started looking for our second breed, we knew we wanted something smaller in body but not in spirit and drive. So the corgi was the obvious choice.

[Calift]

I guess they must be pretty hardy dogs....weren't they originally bred to nip cattle hooves?